President Benigno S. Aquino III said on Wednesday that the holding of the Global Development Networks’ (GDN) Annual Global Development Conference provides policymakers with “specific, more effective, and more strategic” solutions to the global problems of poverty, hunger, unemployment, lack of education and corruption.

Keynoting the GDN’s 14th Annual GDC held at the Asian Development Bank main office in Mandaluyong City, the President said the GDC “puts more solidity to the analysis of the problem,” and has helped government provide interventions where it matters and do the most good.

“We have long heard that the first step in solving a problem is acknowledging there is a problem. But perhaps we can build on that idea: The first step to solving any problem should be identifying the correct problem, otherwise any solution would be directionless, and therefore ineffective,” the President said.

“This conference helps us do just that. It puts more solidity to the analysis of the problem, which will hopefully redound to more specific, more effective, and more strategic solutions,” he added.

He stressed that it was incumbent of governments to ensure inclusive growth for its people in order to empower them to maximize opportunities that come their way.

“For most of the developing world, the overarching problems can be summed up in a few words: Poverty, hunger, unemployment, lack of education, corruption. These are not unique to any one country or people—each of us have seen or experienced them and their effects,” the President said.

“All these problems combine to deprive people of hope, initiative, and opportunities. And while no one can guarantee outcomes, I believe it is incumbent upon government to provide meaningful opportunities to individuals, and an environment conducive to empowering our fellow citizens to seek out and maximize opportunities that come their way. We cannot have a society where a few flourish, and the rest must make do-with crumbs. We must have inclusive growth,” he said.

The President highlighted the Philippines’ efforts at achieving inclusive growth through its social and infrastructure programs such as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) that provides financial assistance to families that keep their children in school and consult with healthcare personnel; and close the classroom gap that will allow more children to attend school.

He pointed out that the next phase of “continued interventions” include mass housing, job creation, tourism and agriculture.

“The next three years will see continued interventions on the poorest of the poor but also, a focus on the vulnerable but emerging sectors of society, all made possible by prudent public finance policies and honesty in public administration: by continuing efforts to build mass housing on site and not in far-flung areas; by creating durable jobs in industry, tourism and agriculture,” the President said.

“This is what our government has chosen to do. The difficulty is that while the problems may be universal, the solutions are not.

Each region, each country, each city and town has its own reality—and the solutions we come up with must be tailored fit to local conditions. This means that our solutions may not be the best for your own communities, and we must study their effects and how to maximize positive interventions in a specific and thorough manner,” he concluded.